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Anthony set his alarm for a 7:30 start, but he neglected to factor in the change to the ship's clock overnight. So we were awake from 6:30 for a 9:45 shuttle bus from the port to Stockholm!
The trip was around 56 kms and we arrived in the beautiful sun filled city in about an hour. We passed the stadium where Eurovision had just been broadcast from and were let off at the Opera House.
We wandered across one of the 57 bridges in Stockholm in the beautiful 27 degree sunshine, past the Parliament and the Royal Palace on the island of Gamla Stan where the old cobblestoned historic area is.
We got on a "hop on hop off" boat and toured around the city by water. We did hop off to visit a museum with an intact wooden war ship from the 1600's (it had sunk after 20 minutes on its maiden voyage), but the queue was ridiculously long, so we hopped back on the boat and continued with our sightseeing by water. Once we arrived back at the old town we hopped off and wandered the streets.
We stopped for lunch at "Osterlanggatan 17 Bar & Kvarterskrig": Swedish meatballs with lingonberries of course washed down with a nice New Zealand Pinot Gris and a local beer for Anthony. Lunch was accompanied with a paper bag holding a number of different breads. We particularly enjoyed a dark cake like piece covered in seeds and made from pilsner. The waitress told me what it was called, but there was no way I'd remember the Swedish word.
After lunch we wandered back past the palace just in time to catch the changing of the guards. We then returned to a museum we had tried to visit in the morning, but it had a 12 noon opening time. I was hoping to see the medieval walls of the old city, but it was still closed. They don't open Monday's!
As we still had a bit of time we decided to sit in a little cafe for a drink and a chance to watch the world go by. Plus they had free wifi. We were finally served after 20 minutes and then 10 minutes later we gave up on getting a drink and left the cafe to catch the bus back to the ship. Oh well, we had a pleasant stop at no cost.
We didn't get to the Abba museum or IKEA (joke) but Stockholm was a nice city and I wouldn't mind visiting it again to see more.
Once back on board we found a nice spot with our backs to the sun protected from the fresh breeze that had come along and sipped on a cocktail and a beer. Another great day with a month to go.
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